Hello guys,
I hope the knowledgeable people on this board can shed some light on my mystery and give me useful advice.
Car: 2003 Mustang SVT Cobra
I live in the Netherlands and last August bought this '03 Cobra, after having owned some other mustangs. It's got a 4yo reman engine with around 20k miles on it, has been well maintained as far as I know (oil was clear when I bought it, always had Mobil1, came with 4 spare filters).
Engine runs like a dream, not ticking or knocking, smoking, etc.
Last week, I decided to change the oil (Mobil1 5w30) + filter (Motorcraft 820s) even though I had only driven maybe 2000 miles, because the car was going in storage till spring.
The oil came out clean, no concerning things there. After this, I drove the car maybe 30 miles.
Later I was reading on mustang boards and found that these cars need the oil level to be on the middle of the dipstick, not the full mark. (6 qt in the owners manual - took 6.8 qt to get to full - most people run 6.5) So I decided to drain just a tiny bit of oil to get to 6.5qt. This is where the fun starts! The half qt of 30mile old mobil1 that came out contained metal dust/glitter/shavings!
I tried to take pictures
I checked a full qt of the 'old' oil that was in the car for maybe 2000 miles in a clean drainpan to see if I had missed anything the first oilchange, but it's clean!
Scared out of my mind, the next day I drained all the 30mile old Mobil1 at once and poured another clean qt through engine to flush out any remaining metal. Checked the all the oil qt by qt in a clean black drainpan, couldn't really find anything concerning! Also cut the filter open, clean! Refilled with 6 qt of new 5W30 synthetic and a new filter and drove 20 miles.
Checked about a coffee cup worth of the new oil the next day, only to find metal shavings again! This is where the story ends, the car is in storage right now till spring. I saved the last sample that I drained with the metal shavings in it. They're ferrous (attrackted by magnet) and seem to be mostly silver in color. Size is maybe very fine sand like, with just a few longer shaped shavings mixed in. You can clearly see it rolling on the bottom of the pan when you hold it from side to side.
I have no idea how a healthy sounding engine could produce this in just 20-30 miles. Also don't understand why I can't seem to find anything when I drain ALL the oil at once. Only when I just drain a small amount from the pan.
Also worth noting is that I suspect the drainplug to be non original (13mm vs the normal 16mm bolthead) One of my theories is that this drainplug is creating the metal shavings by tightening and loosening, in turn washed off by the gulp of oil that is drained, which causes it to end up in the drainpan.
Sorry for the huge post, hope some of you are still with me and can shed some light on this matter!
cliffnotes:
- engine sounds healthy.
- Changed 2000mile old oil: seemed clean.
- drained half a qt of 30mile old oil from pan, found metal filings.
- drained all of the 30mile old oil, seemed clean. Opened up filter, was clean.
- filled with new oil + filter, drove 20 miles again.
- drained 1/4 qt of 20mile old oil next day, again metal filings!
- metal is ferrous and silvery in color, mostly fine sand size, very few longer pieces.
- suspect the non OEM drainplug from contaminating the first gulp of oil every time it's checked.
Thanks a lot,
Nick
I checked a full qt of the 'old' oil that was in the car for maybe 2000 miles in a clean drainpan to see if I had missed anything the first oilchange, but it's clean!
Scared out of my mind, the next day I drained all the 30mile old Mobil1 at once and poured another clean qt through engine to flush out any remaining metal. Checked the all the oil qt by qt in a clean black drainpan, couldn't really find anything concerning! Also cut the filter open, clean! Refilled with 6 qt of new 5W30 synthetic and a new filter and drove 20 miles.
Checked about a coffee cup worth of the new oil the next day, only to find metal shavings again! This is where the story ends, the car is in storage right now till spring. I saved the last sample that I drained with the metal shavings in it. They're ferrous (attrackted by magnet) and seem to be mostly silver in color. Size is maybe very fine sand like, with just a few longer shaped shavings mixed in. You can clearly see it rolling on the bottom of the pan when you hold it from side to side.
I have no idea how a healthy sounding engine could produce this in just 20-30 miles. Also don't understand why I can't seem to find anything when I drain ALL the oil at once. Only when I just drain a small amount from the pan.
Also worth noting is that I suspect the drainplug to be non original (13mm vs the normal 16mm bolthead) One of my theories is that this drainplug is creating the metal shavings by tightening and loosening, in turn washed off by the gulp of oil that is drained, which causes it to end up in the drainpan.
Sorry for the huge post, hope some of you are still with me and can shed some light on this matter!
cliffnotes:
- engine sounds healthy.
- Changed 2000mile old oil: seemed clean.
- drained half a qt of 30mile old oil from pan, found metal filings.
- drained all of the 30mile old oil, seemed clean. Opened up filter, was clean.
- filled with new oil + filter, drove 20 miles again.
- drained 1/4 qt of 20mile old oil next day, again metal filings!
- metal is ferrous and silvery in color, mostly fine sand size, very few longer pieces.
- suspect the non OEM drainplug from contaminating the first gulp of oil every time it's checked.
Thanks a lot,
Nick
